Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-12-03
DAILY HERALD.
ALONG THE RAILS.
The s. P. Co.'s Immense
Works at Sacramento.
AN ACCIDENT AT MOJAvE
Work Of the Denver and Rio
Grande in the Grand Canyon
Slight Washouts-NOte-.

An exchange prints the following IL
regard to the Southern Pacific Com
pany's works at Sacramento:
For more than a year past the works
of the Southern Pacific Company IN
Sacramento have, beyond all ques'
ton, presented the busiest scene TO ne
witnessed in this State. The different
DEPARTMENTS have been running to
their full capacity and at high pres,
sure. A workman has been stationed
at eyery possible point in the immense
shops. and in some OF the shops the
force of men was doubled and divided
into night and day shifts. The rush
Of work continues, and to the visitor
the sights and sounds at the shops are
positiyely bewildering. Two thousand
men are employed, and the roar OF the
furnaces, the clash of machinery and
the din Of the hundreds of riveters is
deafening. II is no wonder that Sena-
for Stanford, as he viewed the shops
the other day, said to Superintendent
J. b. Wright, "We must have more
room.n The Senator went on to re-
mark that the railroad company have
been waiting patiently on the dredger
contractors in hope that they would
enter upon the work Of filling Chlna
slough and thus affording room for an
extension of the shops. He was IN
hopes that the work would be zone
by dredger, as it could be done more
speedily and at one-third the expense.
Besides, by the dredger process the
ground is stamped and solldlhed,
which is not accomplished when the
filling is done by teams. The Senator
declared, however, that he proposes
to give the filling OF China slough hl>
personal attention when he returns
from Washington that the work Will
he done next year, and that if no
other or better plan is adopted, Ben
Crocker will be instructed to go 10
work with his teams.
The big ''boom" at the shops began
over a year ago when an order came
to build thirty-seven of the immense
1890 engines. Master Mechanic
Stevens had clearly proven, by the
construction OF the monster engine
No. 229, and comparing it with en-,
zines OF Eastern manufacture, thai
better engines could be made here
and at less cost, than could be pur'
chased at the Fast. An engine whlch
would cost S11 600 in the East can DC
built he'e for about $4,000. and the
work will be much better done. as the
engines at the East are built by con
tract labor and without that attention
to every detail that is given at the
Sacramento shops.
OF the order for thirty-seven en-
gines. twenty-one have been com
pleted. Two of them were sent u
Los Angeles few days ago, and twt
more of the immense hity-six-tnr
engines will depart for the Southern
Pacific road tomorrow. VI course
the great amount of labor in construc
ton Of cars, repairs, ETC., has inter
fered with the work Of engine build
ing, but the greatest hindranct
has been in obtaining boilers in time
for the engine frames. Boiler
makers have been employed in every
foot OF available space, bnt there are
now five or six frames awaiting Doll
ers. 1t W. believed that this would
he obyiated when the new boiler
shop, now nearly completed. was I'M
ished. and the heads OF departments
were congratulating themselves on the
prospect of soon being in sight OF the
end OF the big job, when on yester
day there came from headquarters an
other immense order, calling for the
construction Of twenty-eight more en-
gines. Fourteen of the engines last
ordered are to be what are known as
1880, or ordinary freight engines
seven 1880, or mammoth fifty-six
ton ten wheelers, and seven l8x2s
engines. This insures all the wori
that can possibly be accomplished fol
several years to come. AS gentle
man at the shops remarked this
morning, "sacramento certainly has
bright outlook for the future, SO RAJ
as the railroad shops are concerned